The death was originally ruled a suicide. The case was reopened by the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office in 2008, and Hendrick was indicted in October after investigators from the television show got involved.

In response to a motion for a change of venue filed by defense attorney Tali Villafranca, Koetter decided to see what eliminating those who had already formed an opinion about the case after seeing or discussing the show would do to the size of the jury pool.

Of 60 eligible jurors, after 10 had been granted exemptions, 23 had either seen or discussed the show.

One by one, those 23 came in front of Koetter. Twenty admitted they already formed an opinion on Hendrick's guilt or innocence and were disqualified from serving.

That left only 40 potential jurors.

"I'm not comfortable with that," Villafranca told the judge. "In a murder case, normally we've got 100, 200 jurors to pick from. I don't feel we can get a fair trial here."

The state also realized the reality of the situation.

"The chance of seating a jury right now is not good. We can try, but it will be a long shot," District Attorney Michael Sheppard told Koetter.

In a criminal case, a minimum of 32 potential jurors is required. Each side - the defense and the state - has 10 strikes during the jury selection process, according to the judge.

Moving the case to another county was discussed before Koetter made his mistrial ruling.

The judge said he would have to confer with circuit's administrative judge to find an open calendar date.